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tandfonline.com – Factors influencing students’ proficiency development in the fraction domain: the role of teacher cognitions and behaviour

tandfonline.com har udgivet en rapport under søgningen “Teacher Education Mathematics”: Abstract Abstract In this study, we investigated which teacher characteristics influence student proficiency development regarding fractions in Grade 5 of Dutch primary education. At least three domains of research (i.e. perspectives) on effective teaching can be distinguished: studies focusing on teachers’ background characteristics, on their knowledge and conceptions regarding the subject they are teaching and on the domain-specific and general pedagogical characteristics of their teaching. In this study, effects of the three perspectives on student fraction proficiency were examined simultaneously using multilevel analyses. Findings revealed that teachers’ age and experience in the upper grades, their pedagogical content knowledge and the degree of student participation in their lessons had positive effects. Their subject matter knowledge, quality of their concept maps and… Continue Reading

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tandfonline.com – To halve a fraction: An issue for second language learners

tandfonline.com har udgivet en rapport under søgningen “Teacher Education Mathematics”: ABSTRACT ABSTRACT The present study investigated test responses from 259 immigrant and non-immigrant school year 9 students in Sweden with the focus on how they solved two problems on fractions, one of them halving a fraction, in a test. The authors report three observations. Newly arrived second language immigrants seemed less likely to have the word ‘half’ in their Swedish mathematical vocabulary. Moreover, second language learners with longer experience of the new language connected the word ‘half’ with a division by two, but showed mathematical difficulties in correctly applying it to a fraction. A third finding was that the longer the experiences with Swedish school mathematics, the more likely both first and second language learners were to erroneously omit the… Continue Reading

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sciencedirect.com – Linking teachers’ solution strategies to their performance on fraction word problems

sciencedirect.com har udgivet: Highlights • Teachers’ written solutions to fraction multistep word problems were analyzed. • Teachers’ strategy and representations use moderately explained their solution correctness. • Teachers’ background characteristics accounted for little variance in solution correctness. • The use of informal strategies and representations were key to correct solutions. Abstract Examining teachers’ knowledge of fraction word problems is important in light of research demonstrating difficulties in both teaching and learning fractions and word problems involving fractions. This study examined fourth- and fifth-grade teachers’ (N = 350) written solutions to three fraction multistep word problems to unearth the salient factors contributive to performance on word problems. We found teachers’ strategies explain teachers’ success in solving word problems. In contrast, the characteristics of teachers’ backgrounds account for little variance in success in solving… Continue Reading